With the equities markets diving for cover, interest on deposit accounts only slightly higher than the under-the-mattress rate and pensions going pear-shaped, investors could easily get the impression that it's all gloom and doom out there. But there is one investment area that is holding up - and that's the buy-to-let market.

Stories of landlords sitting on empty properties are greatly exaggerated. Although it is true to say that there have been some problems at top end of the market, particularly in central London. However, Malcolm Harrison of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) says there have been cascades of rubbish written about the buy-to-let market and that "the bubble hasn't burst because there never was a bubble".

Now is a good time to move into the rental market because whenever house prices start to cool, renting becomes more popular. To pick an area you should draw a circle round an area where you live and look at places convenient to get to. Never go for a property that you would like to live in but choose somewhere that would be good for its purpose. We always emphasise the importance of doing your research and talking to local estate agencies about rental opportunities.

The days of the high return may have gone but yields can produce 4.5% to 5% on the investment a year - certainly better that the return on a deposit account. We believe that you should think of this type of investment as being long term, over at least five years. Property is still a stable investment and is certainly worth including in your investment portfolio.

But for safety, many landlords these days only have a mortgage covering half of the value of their rental property. You couldn't really go wrong by buying into university/business towns in the south west and home counties.

Also, with only about 275,000 buy-to-let mortgages running in the marketplace, which has a total of 20 million homes, there is plenty of room for more would-be landlords to move in.